5 robberies in Berkeley in less than 2 hours Monday

A spate of robberies was reported Monday night in Berkeley near the Cal campus. A theft of a cellphone was also reported in South Berkeley. Image: Google Maps

Update, 3:15 p.m. Police have said, in a Nixle alert published Tuesday afternoon, they believe there is a “high probability” that the five pedestrian robberies near the UC Berkeley campus late Monday night are related.

Police have released brief suspect descriptions as well. The robbers were described as two black men in their late teens or early 20s. One was 5 foot 7, medium build, wearing a gray sweatshirt, and the other was 6 feet tall with a thin build wearing a black hooded sweatshirt.

A gun was seen by victims in the last three robberies. In the first instance, the robbers made threats of a gun, and the second robbery did not involve a weapon.

Original story, 7 a.m. Police in Berkeley were kept busy Monday night by five robberies that took place in less than 2 hours. If that sounds fast, think again: The first four incidents were reported within just 30 minutes.

The robberies took place south of the UC Berkeley campus, within blocks of College Avenue, and may have been related, authorities report.

A gun was seen or mentioned in several of the incidents, while others were strong-arm robberies.

Police Sgt. Andrew Frankel, department spokesman, described the number of events as out of the ordinary for Berkeley.

“Our city averages five to six a week,” he said. “This kind of spike is unusual.”

Limited information was available early Tuesday morning because the reports were still being completed.

Four of the robberies took place in the Southside neighborhood near the UC Berkeley campus within about 30 minutes. The reports came in at about 10 p.m. at Dwight Way and Piedmont Avenue, 10:15 p.m. at Benvenue Avenue and Parker Street, 10:18 p.m. at Channing Way and Dana Street, and 10:30 p.m. at Garber Street and College Avenue.

The next incident was reported about 2 miles away, in South Berkeley, at 11:15 p.m. at Ellis and Fairview streets. According to unconfirmed scanner traffic, someone asked to use the victim’s cellphone, then took off with it. Legally, that’s classified as a theft. (Update, 3 p.m. Police said they do not believe this incident was related to the others.)

That was followed, at 11:41 p.m., by a robbery at Benvenue and Parker back in the Southside neighborhood not far from College.

Frankel said, as of about 2:30 a.m., that no one had been arrested, but that police believe the robberies may be linked to each other based on the descriptions provided of the people responsible.

He said police would not be releasing suspect descriptions at this time, or any information about what was taken. According to unconfirmed scanner recordings, cellphones were targeted in at least some of the cases.

Police ask anyone with knowledge of these incidents to call BPD’s dispatch center at 510-981-5900 and ask to speak with the robbery detail.

Monday night, police were also on the hunt for a missing at-risk woman, who was ultimately found safe in Oakland at about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

Robberies appear relatively flat compared to last year

As of mid-July, there had been more than 145 robberies reported to the Berkeley Police Department in 2016, according to CrimeMapping.com, a repository for police data. Another eight robberies had been reported to the University of California Police Department.

There were 31 calls for service to BPD listed as robberies in July, which is higher than the average month this year, according to BPD data posted online.

(Calls for service can, upon investigation, later be determined to be a different type of incident. The number of confirmed robbery reports was not available as of publication time, however, because the department has not updated those reports since the second week of July due to a technical problem.)

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Most Commented

Concernedresidentofearth

I was walking up Cedar with my family the other day and two African American young men got out of a beat up black car parked in a red zone with no license plates front or rear. I sent my family ahead and circled back to sit surreptitiously on a retaining wall across the street. The M.O. was very similar to the robbery on Vine two weeks ago so I was on heightened alert. I took a few pictures of the car and the waiting driver. I left after about 5 minutes. I didn’t see a robbery in that area in a police report – case closed. Is that the type of vigilante behavior that concerns you?

helen

Would sound nice on a brochure , but that is not a description of our status quo. From the first day of Kindergarten all of our students are reminded daily that Black students are not expected to do well or to behave like other kids. Once it becomes clear that all the posters, murals, special pats on the head are intended as compensation for deficiency as well as for poor treatment in the past, those gestures curdle into something toxic. So there is no KKK, or overt violence from the “oppressor”, our racism is “helpful” and the kids will feel it more acutely every time a new bell or whistle is attached. Of course, “reforms” that dig in deeper will only compound the abuse and give us the results that we are getting.

Pearl Clutcher

I would like to write a bot that just hammer posts the Vlad posts on every story so that we can all learn to ignore them. Please do not engage.

testit

The reality is that there will always be areas with no coverage and bad actors will learn how to avoid being identified.
There are good and bad aspects to having video cameras everywhere. I’m with suckatash in thinking that any security you perceive will based on wishful thinking, at least on a statistical basis. Sure, you will catch some ignorant criminals (which is a good thing) but those same cameras will be used inappropriately as well. There is no free lunch.

Pietro Gambadilegno

Now that they have issued the description, I am going to try to avoid them.

Doug F

False? If there were just one HD camera each covering Telegraph & College @ the Oakland border, we’d probably have a good lead on what their car looks like, by looking a little after 10:30pm for a fast-moving older powerful rear-drive American car with 2 guys & fake paper dealer plates. Catching the holdups on video would require a lot more cameras, but provide much better ID.
Which of your civil liberties would be infringed by cameras viewing public streets & sidewalks? It hasn’t happened in the UK, which has them all over its cities, especially London.
The right not to be held up at gunpoint is more important to me.

emraguso

Done! :)

emraguso

Police have said, in a Nixle alert published Tuesday afternoon, they believe there is a “high probability” that the five pedestrian robberies near the UC Berkeley campus late Monday night are related. Police have released brief suspect descriptions as well. We have updated our story.

Jason T

That they exist. He wants poorly trained private security paid 12 dollars an hour to keep us safe.

Border Dweller

A Nixle alert from BPD 20 minutes ago provided very general descriptions. Perhaps Berkeleyside will update this article.

suckatash

Because more than likely, they know who the perps are. Plus do we want to create a vigilante mentality by encouraging confrontation with young african american males that are totally innocent of this behavior? Ask yourself why you want this information? What are going to do with it?

suckatash

No thanks. My liberty is more important than your false sense of security.

elrod

Cameras on every corner on the southside and let everyone know it. Increasing public safety should be the highest priority.

I want to be the first to congratulate our extremely well-paid police department for an excellent job!

Just look at what an amazing job our public servants are doing in reducing crime in Berkeley. I’m proud of you BPD! Great work keeping us all safe! I mean it could have been 6 robberies instead of 5 in those 2 hours after all.

#EndCityUnionsNOW #FireAllCityEmployees #RebuildBerkeley

Doug F

It makes them more careful, & more likely to transfer to another school. I’m an Uber driver, & get quite a few rides from young ladies afraid to walk a few blocks across Southside at night. Of course they’re also afraid of the uncaught rapists.

What it doesn’t do is make them hide their phone, instead of walking down the street with their nose in it, oblivious to their surroundings. Some things are just beyond their impulse control, at that age.

Why is there no suspect description? If someone is committing a string of armed robberies with a gun they are an immediate threat to the community and a description should be provided. I am shocked that the Berkeley Police are not providing this information to journalists.

Doug F

It’s time for the BPD to ignore more-PC-than-thou instructions from above & start viewing a carful of Oakland’s leading export, violent street felons, with fake paper dealer plates as probable cause for a very careful traffic stop. HD surveillance video on the main streets into town would help too.

I’m guessing young people who have eschewed the benefits and responsibilities of our community. A community with beautiful public schools replete with science labs, swimming pools, music rooms, fully-equipped gymnasiums, big yellow school buses equipped with retractable Stop signs to augment the protective care of reflective vest-wearing crossing guards…schools including entire campuses created to attend to the special needs of at-risk students…schools populated with countless dedicated and talented teachers, coaches, facilities managers, counselors to help students navigate their current challenges and access special programs like affirmative action and financial aid for their future college careers,…a community unified as much by its rejection of classism and racism as anything else, a community in which all those who wish to participate peaceably and cooperatively are welcomed, even more so if their involvement enhances the community’s diversity,…

…eschewed all of that for…
…and have done so with the encouragement of…